


Greatness that comes (Only in death)

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: Adam dies, Adam is a schnee, Adam is vulnarable, Adam-Centric, Animal abuse (jk), Bumbleby - Freeform, But only later, F/F, F/M, Gangs, Gen, Growing Up, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Messed up events, Murder, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Relationship(s), Psychoanalysis, Slavery, biography, cause goat boi not like da bees, it will still be included tho, past torradonna
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-09 12:31:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 8,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17406944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Adam C. Taurus. Son of Christopher Taurus and Willow Schnee. Ex slave, murderer, and a revolutionary figure across remnants modern history. This is the story of his birth, life and death, as well as the events that followed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam's early life.

It was the early may in Atlas. The promise of warmer weather did nothing to hinder the deep snow in the northern most continent. The white landscape drained all life in the city.  
  
There was a hospital on the outskirts of the city where the matriarch of the Schnee screamed in pain. Willow was there in secret. And despite that, all thought  of stealth escaped her when she felt the pain of pushing another being out of her body.  
  
A few hours passed. She lay back with her son in her arms. His blue eyes looking at her with awe. He had light brown hair that would no doubt darken over the first months of his life, two small horns peaked out from his short hair. He was a faunus... just like his father.  
  
Christopher had arrived a few minutes ago. He was sitting down next to Willow, looking at their son. "We need to make sure Jaques never sees him... that he never knows his name or who his family is. He won't leave him alone otherwise."  
  
They both knew the risks. With Jaques and Willie's wedding set for the next month, her disappearance had been alarming. As much as she hates to admit it, Adam would never be safe with her. Not where she was going.  
  
Chris had already arranged for Adam to be taken care of by him and his sister, but that didn't make it any less nerveracking. Her son would be away from her for most of his life.it was safer that way. Away from her he could grow up happy, safe, able to grow and become a good man like his father. He would live.  
  
As the days passed, all seemed well. The lovers hadn't seen each other for months now, but that was for the best. If Jaques caught wind of the son his wife had behind his frosty ass, he would send everything he had against him and his father. And now, Jaques basically doubled his power after he took over his father in law's company.  
  
Willow hated hiding. She wanted to se her true family, that which she actually loved. She lost that choise when Jaques started using her body for his own personal needs.  _"I'll need an heir"_  he said.   
  
He tainted her, used her and left her with his child in her womb like a cursed miracle. Yet another life she would have to protect from the ice King's wrath.  
  
She did eventually find her family again. Well, what was left of it. When she opened the door to their house, there was blood all over the floor. Chris's and his sister's. Adam was crying in the other room. When she found him she knew he was no longer safe without her. Jaques was the only one who would do this. Murder his father and aunt, then leave him to starve. She picked up her son and fled.   
  
The boy grew up with his grandfather Nicolas, where Jaques couldn't touch him. When Winter was born, he often spent time with her. They grew up together. She would talk to him about what her life was like, explain to her what her father had taught her, and he would teach her better. He taught her humility, love, compassion and fairness. Everything Jaques told her not to do.   
  
November. 6 year old Adam was talking to his sister. Apparently they had another sister. Weiss. Winter told him of how her father would keep her away from the child. How he would shelter her in his evil words from the first day she came home.  
  
It was the same year that Jaques had gotten his hands on Adam. The boy was thrown in the dust mines. All around him there were more like him. Horns, fangs, claws... you name it. He was scared. But that didn't matter now. All that worried the little boy was his sister. She would wonder where he was.  
  
Eventually that thought dimmed. Nobody came for him. He was hurt, starved half to death, forced to work like someone four times his age. It didn't matter. There he learned to defend himself.  
  
He never got the chance to use his skills when they caught him by the neck, held him down to the makeshift platform by chains. He was only a child. They didn't care. He felt the hot iron against his face. It burned more than flesh. He saw only his mother in the distance. She was crying, holding his sister's to her chest so they wouldn't see. Winter did though.   
  
Memories past that were few and far between. He only searched for an escape. There was a faunus couple in the mines, the Amitolas. They took care of him for a while. Told him about their daughter, only a year older than him.   
  
It was with their help he got out. Richard, the father, was an ex blacksmith from Menagerie. He forged him a blade in secret. The man gave him a little knife. It was just enough to slice the guard's throat at night and flee into the woods. He spilt blood on the snow, leaving the stain to burn its surface.  
  
He snuck on the first ship off of mantle. His  birthday was spent in the cargo bay of a SDC ship, in a box full of dust shards.  
  
When he landed, he had nowhere to go. Too young to work and not favoured by society, the boy spent his first few years abroad begging on the streets. Scavenging for food, and for a while, working for he spiders to get by. They trained him, helped him develop. He unlocked his aura with them. They helped him find his semblance, and it was little miss that got him Wilt and Blush.   
  
He met the Belladonnas at the age of 12. The boy now kept his head up. He displayed his scar to anyone who would look, showing the world the evils they were very well capable of. He was in the town square searching for a man who was to deliver a package when he heard the lows cries of the faunus from the center of the plaza. A tall bearded man stood in the middle shouting over the noise. On his shoulder, a small cat faunus who spotted him. His face. Instantly she called to him.   
  
Her youthful voice pulled him into the crowd. Into the center. She put her small hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. Giving him a piece of paper on it.  _'Join the white fang and help bring equality for all'_ he spoke to them later that day, and soon, he became one of their most valuable members.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam's time in the fang after things turn violent. The first casualty he felt sorry for and the start of his decent into a violent void. WARNING. HE AND BLAKE ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP AND SHE IS 6 YEARS YOUNGER if that creeps you out don't read this chapter but there is nothing sexual involved so yh.

"Adam. I would like you to meet your team. You will lead them of a raid tomorrow night. There is an SDC compound where they store the majority of their local stockpile."  
The 19 year old smiled to himself. Payback.  
  
In the 7 years he spent in the fang, two major changes happened. The Fall of Ghira belladonna, which was sad, since the mat treated him like his own son on more than one occasion after he found out what was the truth behind the mark on his face and his heritage.  
  
The second, that was the more common use of violence. The new regime suited his needs better. He could hurt those who hurt him.   
  
There were a few changes in his personal life. He was now the leader on the Vale branch of the fang, a title he had worked very hard for and was in the process of obtaining the title officially. He was the boyfriend of Blake, Ghira's daughter, which honestly had him quite confused as to why a 13 year old would be interested in him. (And then he was told of how Blake reached sexual maturity almost half a decade early, therefore extreme desire to mate while in heat. Yes it was embarrassing, no they do not question it anymore.) And he now covered his scars with a Grimm mask. His hair had been dyed red where streaks of trademark schnee white had begun to develop.   
  
After the messenger briefed him on who the new strike team were and the objective of the mission, he left to his cabin. Blake had already gotten there and was getting ready for bed while he undid his mask and blindfold. When he turned around, she was already in her sleep clothes looking at him. Her hand traced the thin stubble that was beginning to peak through.  
  
"What happened out there?" She asked him softly, leaning into his chest. He gave a soft him and responded with "briefing for tomorrow's raid." His eyes were soft and he smiled slightly. Blake pulled away from him and helped him take off the long red and black coat he wore. She set it aside on the peg next to the door while he took his shirt off.   
  
"I can never understand why they did this to you..." She whispered, tracing the obvious peaks in his skin, raised by a bullwhip cracking when he was first sent into the dust mines. He stole the guard's breakfast. "Did they have no mercy towards you? You were a child"  
  
He shrugged, her words were naive "to them I was an animal... my age didn't matter, I was expendable. And getting rid of me all together had no concequince. Jacques would have thanked them for removing the filthy stain off of the Schnee name and getting back at Willow for having any sort of common sense and finding someone else." He laughed softly. "To them, i was just like my father. Maybe even Willow saw that in me... I am Adam Christopher Taurus after all. I don't have father's name for no reason." He smiled as he remembered the picture of his father that Willow kept.  
  
He stood up and walked over to the bathroom door, turning to Blake. "You go to sleep. I'm gonna shower and get in bed after I deal with all of the distribution orders."  
  
"Don't worry about that, I did it for you a few hours ago." She said with a smile and got into bed, shutting off the light before turning to face the wall and wrapping herself in the warm blanket.  
  
He showered, brushed his teeth and put on a new pair of boxers before he joined Blake in bed. The smaller cat faunus almost instantly curled into his body. Her head on his shoulder with her ears flat against her skull. He ran his fingers through her hair and across her features.  
  
She was young, innocent, or as innocent as you can be when you are in the fang. She left her parents for him, called them cowards for not fighting. She saw him as her role model as well as her lover, and it felt good to be looked up to. But she was naive. She only ever experienced faunus descrimination in low levels, and her high status among their kind had somewhat carried over when speaking of humans. She wasn't a slave, she was educated. He on the other hand, he got dealt a bad hand in life, born a halfbreed. Somewhere between faunus and Schnee, he was forced into working for his own relatives without anyone batting an eye. The faunus in the mines were no good either. They would need at him for being a schnee, telling him that his father was a traitor to his people. But what had he done. He was young then.  
  
He stroked her brow as she slept. He would sheild her from what humans really were like. He would teach her to avoid them and to not be pulled into their twisted games. He took one last look at her sleeping face, so peaceful. Sleep overtook him as well.  
  
When morning broke he left camp as soon as possible. The warehouse was well guarded for most of the day, but they had two opportunities to strike. Morning shiftchange and night shiftchange. The clock had just struck 6 am when the truck pulled up. 6 men, all lightly armoured. He instructed a deer faunus to stay behind and holler if any came into the building while they were in there. The rest of the team hurried around back while the guard's gathered in the front. A girl named Ilia, someone he had been familiar with since it was her parents that helped him all those years ago, picked the door lock and got them all inside. They grabbed as much as they could, breaking and smashing anything they couldn't and using anything that could be used on the spot. They were about to leave, but a guard stepped through the door that very moment. Adam told them all to run. They did.  
  
He sliced that man's leg off, knocked him out and left him on the ground to bleed. They all escaped.  
  
When Adam returned to his cabin that evening, Blake saw him covered in blood. She rushed to his side, searching for any immediate source of it. "It's not mine... There was a guard that spotted us on the way out. I brought the guys time to escape, but I don't think that boy will walk again."  
  
Blake looked at him in shock. She knew he would take the Necesarry evil if need be. But she had never once seen it herself. He went to shower, but it was hours before he came out. He couldn't rid himself of the blood on his hands.  _That boy could have lived..._    
  
The guilty conscience ate at him. That night he didn't sleep a single minute.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake and Adam train for the big heist on the train. The night prior seems littered with reasons for him to fight the world on the events that unfold.

**He was sparring with Blake that evening. Both of them moving fast, striking each other's blades at incredible speed. It was still clear he had the upper hand over her. Three years did little to help her overtake his skill. He only thought of her counter attacks as sloppy, her parry ineffective and her footwork unstable.**  
  
He didn't tell her though. In the fang you learn by doing, and doing was a trial by fire. He was well aware of her skills though. She had improoved greatly. Her aim was dead on at close to mid range, she moved fast and she had mastered the art of deception and the use of her semblance. Not to mention getting hit by the but end of Gambol Shroud in full swing hurt like a bitch and cracked countless masks for him.  
  
"What's wrong Blake, can't keep up?" He smiled, blocking her slice before swiping his leg and knocking her balance off. "You're sloppy!" He shouted as he unleashed a multitude of sliced at her. She dodged as fast as she could, but the butt end of wilt decked her in the face still. That combined with the fact that they were moving at that pace for the past two hours and had a raid on the shipment of atlas tech in the morning led to her tapping out before he could throw her into another duel.  
  
She sheathed her weapon and leaned against him. He smirked at her with a coy look in his eyes. "Humans won't let you tap out Blake. They'll just take the opportunity to kill you."  
  
His voice turned bitter towards the end of his statement.  
  
Blake rolled her eyes. "That is... if they can catch me." She smirked. "Just like if you could if I say... invited you to... save some water." He looked at her with a shocked look on his face. He wasn't complaining but Blake wasn't the intimately affectionate type unless she was in heat, and that had passed last week. She was up to something and he didn't know what it was. Still, he didn't really care.  
  
Long after the water had gotten cold, they took their activities to bed, continuing into the waning hours of the morning. In the end, Blake fell asleep on his chest. Their nude bodies were pressed tightly against each other. Her breasts felt like they were burning his skin. Actually, everything burned. He got up, got dressed and went for a walk.   
  
The forever fall helped him clear his senses. The crisp air cools his overheated body. He had time to reflect over his life so far.  
  
Since he took over Vale, he pushed for fear. Humans would be afraid of him he same way he was afraid of them when he was a slave. For that fear to build, it started with maiming, then killing out of self defence. That didn't last long. He killed when it was convenient  now. He didn't feel bad anymore. They didnt feel bad when they hurt him. So he didn't care about them anymore.   
  
He took a look around the forest. Red leaves littered the floor and crunched under his boots. Behind him he heard footsteps. His head pricked up and he drew his blade, turning around and examining the area around him. He turned in the direction of the sound again. Nothing. Then.  
  
"Brother." A voice echoed behind him. He dropped his blade. Turning around he saw somebody he hadn't seen since he was young.  
  
"Winter?" He asked in shock. She had grown up. Her hair reached well past her hips. She had their mother's features. She was wearing the Atlas special ops uniform and stood in front of him with pride. "You shouldn't be here." He growled through his teeth.  
  
Her expression didn't change. "Ironwood put me in charge of capturing you. Luckily for you, I have a soft spot for family. Especially the brother who showed me how much of an asshole my father is."  
  
He grabbed his blade again. "How is that lucky? You won't send me to jail? No. You'll just send me into your mines again. Maybe this time you will be the one to burn the other side of my face. What since family has already done so fucking much." He snarled.  
  
Winter stood static as he steppe closer  his blade was against her throat now. "I won't hurt you Adam." She said slowly.  
  
He lit up with fury. "You won't HURT me?! What the he'll did you and your kind do for so many fucking years. You didn't just hurt me. You fucking degraded me to a soulless animal. Your kind took me for disposable labour. Do you think I want to go anywhere near your Atleasian army and their stuck up racist prick now?! I'd rather both of us die."  
  
Adam was fuming. Winter sighed at that. He had changed obviously. The time apart did that. Bus she was at least glad he no longer suffered at the hands of her father. "I don't want a fight Adam." She spoke softly.  
  
There was a red glow behind his mask. "YOU DONT WANT A FIGHT? Then you never should have come here." The Forrest turned black. All she could see was his hair, his eye and his blade. He slashed across the air, a massive tidal wave of red energy coming towards her. She jumped away in fear. He was mad. He was merciless. He was not going to negotiate either.   
  
What's more, he was leagues better than her.  
  
She ran as fast as she could away from him.  
  
By the time Adam returned to camp, it was dawn. He hollered for Blake to meet him at the ambush spot.  
  
He would never forget that raid. Not because of something they had found. But because of the massive defeat. The cargo was on the half of the train that Blake had detached in her tretury. Returning after the loss was catastrophic to the camp. He tore apart his cabin. Watched it burn as he shouted stings of curses into the sky. Ilia found him by a tree. She looked to him and placed her hand on his arm.   
  
"What happened?" She asked. It almost fuelled his anger, but he had always had a familial bond with the older girl. He told her of how Blake had abandoned their cause for the lives of humans. How she had compromised their mission. How she fled. He told her of his sister's visit and the events that followed. He told her everything.   
  
In the end, the chameleon girl was bright red. She held him in her arms her soothing words only killed the flame he had. For weeks, productivity in the vale group of the white fang slowed to a standstill, and he drifted into fits of anger, pain, sorrow. One night he cried in the forest all alone until he was a quivering mass of red and black.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being approached by cinder had it's conccequimces

He had greatly downgraded. The state of disrepair he had slipped into over the two weeks following Blake fleeing the fang was one he knew he had to kick and he had to do it fast. He didn't know where to start.  
  
The day started the way it always did. Get up, drink yourself into an abyss, train. It was standard by now. What changed was the sight of three humans approaching. He stayed calm. They didn't pose an immediate threat.  
  
A short haired woman with Amber eyes stepped forward. "Are you Taurus?" She asked coyly. He frowned behind the mask.  
"Who's asking?" He growled through his teeth.  
  
"Someone who has a proposal, so to speak." She didn't flinch. She gust strutted further into his territory.  
"Yeah? How about you tell me what that is or you can take your proposal and you promptly shove it up your pompous ass." He said.  
  
"I thought you wanted revenge. On the humans, Schnees... Blake." At the mention of her name, he quipped up. Strutting forward, he closed into her personal space. "Tell me all you know." The said in a dangerously low tone.   
  
"How about you ask our mistress yourself, mister Taurus." Her voice was an invitation.  
  
This could very well be a trap, a play on his life by some disguised atlesians. He rolled that thought around his head.  **What did he have to lose.**  He had nothing left really. Atlas would kill him to save their skin from scrutiny. And if they weren't lying, he could very well pay back his tormentors promptly.  
  
He agreed. They led him to a bulkhead, there were a few faces he recognised. Arthur Watts, the Atleasian scientist that would often come to the mines, selecting test subject from the faunus workers. Roman Torchwick, big time vale crime boss. He basically ran the lawless in this half of Sanus.  
  
The flight took them off the continent. Far the the northwest. He had a sneaking suspicion of where they were going. The uncharted lands of crucible. Grimm flew by their ship, ignoring them. He felt the stress in his muscels.  
  
Upon landing, he searched for a lifeforms among the barren Grimmlands. They stood at the foot of a castle. Dark basalt stone rose well out of view. He walked with the people around him. At the door stood a smiling scorpion faunus. He looked very happy indeed. "Cinder! I see you brought new troops for our lady. Good good, her Devine Grace will be pleased!" He laughed like a maniac.   
  
Suddenly questioning his choices Adam strayed further away from the crazy faunus towards the large figure of a hazel eyed man.  
The door opened and they stepped forward as a group. The long corridor led to a door the size of the ones in the old castle keeps before the great war.   
  
Cinder spoke. "Mother... We have inlisted those who you asked for." She spoke slowly. The coyness in her tone was completely gone. A figure rose out of the chair in the middle. Red eyes, whire hair, white skin. Her face overtaken by vains. He stepped back.  
  
What the hell was this. What had they dragged him into. He wanted to run. He had every reason to. This woman was Grimm. He killed those.   
  
"Mister Taurus. Shut up, your fear is deafening. I am not Grimm, I am simply the result of the experiments of the gods of light and dark." She spoke. He tried to relax as well as he could. The people in the room reeked of fear as well, but he was the only one questioning his choices hat led up to his moment. Was slavery better than being killed by this lady? Maybe.  
  
Salem explained the truth of the world to them. Adam feared her the more he learned. Her and ozpin. The truth was, he knew he had no way out of this if he fled. So he agreed to join her. He would rather be on the winning side of history.  
  
She sent them all home. With them she sent seer Grimm. The octopus like creature had scarily sharp tentacles. It felt like a leash.  
  
Salem wanted him to work with Torchwick to bring Beacon to it's knees.they were to flood the streets of vale with Grimm. The target was the Vytal festival, when the students would be busy with training, fighting and organising events.  
  
And so, he followed the plan like an animal. Always following each an every order.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Events of the fall of beacon. Going more into Adam's mental state.

There were complications with the plan. A false start before Vytal that led to vale being overrun by Grimm, a slow unsteady speed of preparation... things were moving along, but not by all means smoothly.  
  
When it finally came time to bring the school to its knees, the first few deaths brought an onslaught of Grimm. They tore through the city like a hot knife through butter. Buildings had been reduced to rubble, death surrounded. Human and faunus. Necesarry evil.   
  
As soon as the cily was only occupied by Grimm and the odd survivor here and there, he lead the fang towards the school. Bullheads flew across the canion. Faunus in Grimm masks flooded out. Death and destruction ensued. He slaughtered anyone.  
  
The months under Salem's controll left him lacking in mercy. He was ruthless. Men, women, children. Human or faunus. They never stood a chance. He was releaving the stress of being once again enslaved. This time, it was his own doing.  
  
He stumbled across a library where a few people had taken shelter.they looked scared... but apparently not scared enough to just run for the hole in the wall.   
  
With them was a student. He was barely armed with a makeshift stone cutting edge. He ran at Adam full speed, maybe hoping to slow him down. It wasn't very effective. The red haired man took him by the throat and crushed his windpipe. But in the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of black and white. A familiar face. One that hurt him.   
  
One Blake Belladonna.  
  
He turned his attention towards the traitor. "What's the matter my love" he said, his voice almost dripping with sarcasm. "You gonna run away again?" The look on her face was one of pure mortification.  
  
The events that followed we all know, so I won't go very much into detail reguarding them. The fall of beacon was the end of many lives. The destruction of many futures. But to Adam, it was a means of escaping his new master. He now had an out. He took pleasure in knowing he would no longer be controlled, and nowadays, when Adam took pleasure in something, heads rolled.   
  
There were casualties, most of which were fatalities. Yang Xiao Long was not the latter, but she was the former, and adam remembered the girl as the idiot stupid enough to devote her heart to Blake, enough to take such a hit for her anyway.   
  
He admired her guts, but at the same time, he saw the love Blake actually felt for the girl. It made him irk in some way that would not go unchecked in the future. He just waned into to end.  
  
But what did he want to end? The feeling of being owned by someone? The pain of being left behind? Or was it the degredatipn of his mind into the very state Tyrian was currently in? It scared him to go that far. But in the end, he found pleasure in revenge.  
  
And when Adam Christopher Taurus found pleasure in something...  
  
Heads rolled.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The series of events after beacon all the way until Heaven. Really condensed.

The fall of Beacon was one move in a much older game of chess, one that would soon, in perspective to how long it had been going on for, end. Adam was a pawn.   
  
When he was finally hit by that realisation, he grew enraged. The world was against him. Humans took his childhood, criminals took his freedom, his lover stole his stability. All of those were necesarry for having anything within an ounce of sanity.   
  
He took out the anger the only way he knew how. He killed, he instilled fear in people, and he stole opportunities. It was what led him down his path, and in turn, it will be what drives him off it.  
  
His next goal, was raising within the ranks of the white fang. He was already at the top, but high leader Sienna Khan was his only obstacle from complete and utter controll over the organisation. He wanted power, and power came from controll.   
  
The journey to Anima was a lot more difficult than he had first imagined. With the armed police patrolling land sea and sky, he was often met with large groups of people wanting his head.  
  
They weren't very well trained. Many fell to wilt. Adam left a hot river of blood across Sanus. The people that fell to his blade had been human and faunus. He went as far as to murcylessly murder his own kind. The ones he was once swarn to.  
  
Being a trusted member to Sienna's council, he was allowed free access to her and her guard's. A mistake that High leader Khan had made. The attempt on her life was not surprising. What was, is the fact that none of the guard's intervened. She died under her own roof, to the hands of her own general.  
  
  
He spoke a different wisdom to his populous. He made himself the image of revolution. He spoke of freedom and happiness. Of revenge.  
  
He got word of Blake's whereabouts a week prior. The new high leader asked the belladonna be silenced, their daughter be brought to him.  
  
The plan had gone pear shaped soon after. The siege on Heaven took place before true preparations were made, the explosives were disarmed and there were people to intervene. Blake was there, her presence angered him beyond tactical thinking. It led to a shameful defeat, followed by a torturous conversation with Salem, one that left him bleeding half to death in the middle of the forest.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the siege, Adam goes after the only thing he knows anymore. Revenge.

The bull faunus felt the last remainder of his sanity leave him. For good. He dragged himself through the forest, taking note of familiar landmarks, sometimes the trail of his own blood if he was really paying attention. He walked for about a week before finding the white fang outpost in the forest.   
  
His own subordinates jeered at him as he walked up the steps to the council chamber. He felt their words brush straight past him they hit a wall and shattered into fuel for his anger.  
  
The moment he stepped through the door, he heard voices. A part of him could recognise their tone: anger, defiance, retaliation. He could not allow it. He painted the walls red with faunus blood for everyone to see. To fear. His mask crumbled to dust as he left the chamber, leaving stunned faces as he walked away.  
  
Hazel gave him indication of Blake's location and where she was going. He took the time to ask the spiders for a favour since little miss had owed him a favour from back in the days he worked with them. She hated to see what her protege had become, but nurture beat nature, and he was nurtured into a violent, bloodthirsty mindset.  
  
When he heard they were planing to get to atlas by the Argus base, he took the train they did. Got on it about a mile from station, unnoticed by guard's. He kicked himself when he couldn't get on the back of the train when Blake decoupled the front. He hated that she had the chance to see him. To expect him.   
  
He disappeared under the train, holding on to steel bars before she had a chance to realise he was real. Seemingly a post traumatic dream. He smirked at this. She was an idiot still. It all worked in his favour.   
  
It was clear they would soon make it to Argus anyway. He waited until the train reached the outskirts of the city and hopped off, walking he last mile on foot. He was a wanted man, and getting caught by security on a train was the last mistake you would see him make.   
  
While in Argus, he took notice of the other half of the team Blake was in. The bubbling blonde idiot had two left feet and half a brain cell to operate on for some reason. Behind the stupidity there was a lot of built up tension however. Anger, and even the rare appearance of the same rage Adam was now full of. It was only subtle. But it takes a psycho to recognise the signs early.  
  
The redhead with the hammer had honestly scared him. She was strong. The same one that had sent Hazel through a wall and halfway across Haeven's courtyard back at the seige. She seemed happy no matter what. Either that or compleatly unaweare of what was taking place around her.  
  
The other one, with the black hair and pink highlight, he didn't speak much. He just kept his team on track, fed, and out of extreme trouble.  
  
Only a few days passed until the rest arrived in Argus. The much too young leader Ruby, his second half sister, the blond idiot who's arm he cut off, Blake, who clung to said idiot like Velcro. Oh how things change isn't that right.  
  
He followed them everywhere, searching for the perfect moment to exact his revenge. It was the only thing he wanted now, he'd already lost all else.   
  
In time, he waited until Blake went to disconnect the radar on the military base. It was the only time she let go of her blond friend. Literally and figuratively.   
  
It was a grave mistake for her.  
  
Or was it.  
  
Adam had no idea, none at all, that the sun rising over Argus on that cold, December morning would be the last sunrise he ever saw. Nor did he know that he would be fine with it.  
  
He will reach the end of his road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the end of his life. After that I will change perspective onto other people and/Or a more generalised public opinion. I haven't written anything set in stone yet.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of the line for High leader Adam.

Steel struts held up the tower. 5 guards. Two on the first two levels and one at the top. He ended them quick. One gash into their bodies. Big enough to bleed to death out of, the wounds left blood to rain through the perforated floor. Some dropped onto his hair. His hands... He didn't care much.  
  
Fighting Blake on the tower worked in both their favour. He had every chance to chick her off and crash the entire tower on top of her. She could use her semblance to sneak up on him. The playing deals was leavened slightly. Adding to that the fact that he was blinded by his rage, enough to hinder his thinking, he was about on par with her by now.  
  
Blood Red wilting rose against black shadows.speed and agility against vercitility, assholes law's of physics and they both landed face first on the hard ground from almost 25 meters off the ground. He felt his rib break a little. He walked it off anyway.  
  
The new terrain left him disadvantaged. Swinging through the trees at high speed hurt like he'll on remnant, he pushed forward anyway. The moment Blake missed a step, he struck, nearly missing her. It only made him more angry, adrenaline rushing through his vains.  
  
Open air. An archway over a waterfall. The scene was like out of a story. Mist rose around them, not enough to obstruct vision, but enough to sooth his injuries slightly. The oportunity arose. Blake on the ground. Her blade in two. No way out.  
  
He took the stupid blindfold off. He had this moment to appreciate sweet victory, he wouldn't shroud it in black cloth. Blake slowly morphed into someone else In his vision. First it was Jacques. Then it was his mother. Blake again. Cinder, Salem... and yet again Blake. He brought his blade down into her. Then there was nothing there.  
  
Pain struck him across every inch of his being. Remnant motors was known for their shoddy work. But after the blow delivered to him by the bright Yellow motorbike, it will forever be how goddamn heavy those beasts are.   
  
He recovered, only to be met by an angry shotgun blast that he nearly couldn't block. The same fucking blond as always. The look of surprise on his face was evident. What was this woman? Human sacrifice of demand? The one with a death wish? An actual idiot?  
  
He could hold his own against her, but it's cleared she had improved. What he was curious about was how she played on the defensive for much of the fight. The oportunities she missed to hit him would have weakened his aura significantly more than the hit he received here and now.  
  
He had energy stored in his blade. Enough to kill a small goliath. His rage powered him as he directed everything at the blond in a glowing wave of force. She was pushed back. And all there was... were a few holes in the armour playing on her prosthetic. She didn't even look bothered.  
  
A new type of anger developed. One towards the blond. But by then, Blake had recovered. He kept them at bay. Took the opportunity to going the black haired ninja off a cliff before focusing on the blond. He gave one last efort into ending her. And so, when he felt his blade unable to move, when the smoke cleared, he was surprised by the sudden wave of heat. It burned him almost. He always preferred the cold.   
  
Too late to think. He felt his ribs shatter as the force of a truck hit him head on. He raised the ground around him. His aura failed him. He went for his sword but it was elsewhere. Yang had it. And then nobody did. Only the water. He went to try to catch it. Only for Blake to nearly break his jaw. He tripped on the remains of Gambol Shroud. Then it hit him. He launched for the hander.   
  
Too slow. The feeling of a Blunt cut pierce his gut was horrid. But not as bad as seeing the other half bloody poking out of his chest.  
  
"...Oh."  
  
They pulled the broken blade out of him. He walked a few steps. Unsupported, but soon stepping was too much energy. He felt himself fall to his knees. His vision blurred. All he could see was shapes. They morphed into the image of his father.   
  
"What have you become Adam..." He spoke to him through the limbo of life and death. Then all Adam could see was nothing.  
  
He could only hear the pothetic crunch of his neck breaking. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Adam dead, news spreads between the schnee sister's. Also bees.

The initial wave of guilt. It's one that comes once the realisation strikes. Not after the adrenaline fades. The initial stage of guilt is one that leaves it's victim hating themselves. It makes them question their sanity.  
  
That is what led Blake to fall to her knees bawling tears after Adam's body hit the water. She had killed him. It was so easy to blame him for all the things he did to her, but here she was. His blood on her hands.  
  
Yang was there for her. She clung to her like she was her lifeline. For a long time she tried to deny it, but she may as well have been. Had it not been for yang, Blake would be dead.   
  
The blond held her through her tears. She hollow feeling soon faded and hey returned to the group. In telling them what happened, the others had no negative reaction, other than pity of all things. Ruby gave Blake a little encoragement. Weiss was the one who sat with the two of them after the Grimm situation (pun intended, sorry) was over.  
  
The ex heiress to the SDC was supportive of the both of them. She kept close, wanting to hear every detail for reasons she herself didn't know. It just felt like the right thing. When she left, Blake pulled yang apart from the group into the back.  
  
"There is one thing that Weiss doesn't know about Adam. Her sister might though and that... would be bad." Blake spoke with nervous anxiety.  
  
Yang didn't know what to make of that. She had seen the mark on the man's face but what did he have to do with Weiss?  
"Blake what's so important about Adam that wei-"  
  
"Adam is her half brother." Violet eyes widened. They had ended the life of the man that had traumatised them. That far was good.. ish. But the fact that he was a Schnee, that much was a little more complicated.  
  
"Hah... haha, Weiss and her sister are going to kill us. Especially her sister. That woman has a temper and it isn't a good one." She said nervously.  
  
It was almost true. Upon arrival in atlas, the first question the two were asked was who's blood was covering them. When they had answered the question, all he'll broke loose.  
  
Winter had gone on a mini rampage, uprooting a table that was firmly bolted to the floor. Qrow and Nora had to restrain her in fear of having someone die. It wasn't much better when Weiss figured it out. She looked at the both of them, her sister, the window, back to them and then she bolted out the door, closely followed by a storm of rose petals.   
  
They got the opportunity to explain themselves properly. The schnee women, still salty about what had happened let them walk away unscathed, only with an ice cold glare. Still, it was better than being rotisserie huntress.   
  
They had let them have a room to rest. The two of them deciding it was for the best to be together at the moment. Both for the comfort of being near each other and because they were that last face Weiss wanted to see at that moment in time.  
  
The room was small. Two beds on opposite sides of the room. A dressed in the middle, under a window. As soon as the door shut, Yang found that she had Blake hugging her tight, her head resting in the crook of her neck. "Sorry." The feline faunus muttered, " I just... really need this."  
  
Yang said nothing. She relaxed, hugged her partner back and closed her eyes, letting herself relax in their slow synced breathing. There were no longer flashes of red behind her eyelids. Now was only darkness. That and a violet mist. The smell of nightshade.  
  
They held each other like that for a little over a minute and a half. When they let go, it was out of exhaustion. The hour was late, 2 am to be persice. They fell in their separate beds like stones and didn't move after.  
  
 _Blood everywhere. There was blood absolutely everywhere. On her hands, on her face, on his face. Blake saw his face. He  stood straight with her sword in his gut, the other half protruding out of his chest. He smiled like a lunatic._  
  
 _"Hey Blake. Come to kill me again? To hurt me? Well how about I... hurt you." His smile broadened. It was his voice but his lips weren't moving. He turned into a mist. One that swirled in no particular direction. One that was many different Colors._  
  
 _It started to reform. Now it was Yang. She had Wilt buried in her gut about a third of the way. Blake's hand was on the hilt. The yellow prosthetic grabbed her hand, walking forward. She pulled herself further up the blade._  
  
 _"You can't go forward from here Blake. You took a life. And I'll come and hurt you every single night just because you let me. You... or your precious little girlfriend that holds you oh so dear." It was Adam still. From far away._  
  
 _Yang started to glow, her body burned, and she crimped into ash before her very eyes. Blake had no voice to scream. Not in retaliation, not in agony._  
  
 _She couldn't even call yang's name at first._  
  
 _Yang._  
  
 _The person that had been by her side this entire time._  
  
 _The girl she had not so secretly (to some. She and Ruby talk you know.) Fallen in love with._  
  
 _Yang..._  
  
"YANG!" she shot up out of her bed. A cold sweat had formed on her skin as she bolted upright. Next to her, she could make out the figure of her partner. The girl's hair was ablaze to provide what little light it could and her eyes, though red, her the look of pure and utter concern.  
  
"It's ok. I'm here. Breath. It's over, it is finally over. He can't hurt us anymore." She hushed the faunus.   
  
They held each other. Keeping as much contact as possible. Protecting each other from the evil that had decided to attack the core. They drifted to sleep in each other's arms, cuddling in such a way one would say they had done it millions of times.   
  
No. They hadn't. They just did not have that kind of time. But if they did, they would have.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang thinking after staying up all night and a bee kiss that I won't go into detail about. I'll leave it to your imagination since its probably better than mine.

Battle scars heal. It was a fact most relied upon. Weather the battle they caught was literal, one that caused internal injury, therefore a permanent reminder of its existence... or internal, one that tormented the mind, those would be more like wars, taking place over many weeks, months, in the odd occasion even years. Those would leave the deeper scars. The ones which remain below the surface.  
  
Yang had suffered from both. The former just as much as the latter. She endured the suffering such events caused and moved past them. It showed on her face. In her eyes, the fire that was once an inferno had burned down to little more than smouldering ash.  
  
It never bothered her. But there was one thing that reignited her embers. It was Blake. She was the person that came back to her. The one that was unlike her mother, or summer, or even Tai, but he was much of an exception. He was physically there... not so much psychologically.   
  
Yang had learned a lot of what had gone through Tai's mind all those years ago. The abandonment of someone she loved had left her scarred deep down to the point where she had lost her will to move forward. It wasnt unlike the effect the apathy had on her. The thing that brought her out of it was the possibility of losing her sister, and it was that possibility that got her to her team, and ultimately, to Blake.  
  
Things did feel rough at the start. Very much against the grain. After the unrest had settled, if only slightly, things between them tensed to compensate. At first the train, then the barn back at Brunswick. Things between them were misunderstood.  
  
Finding Blake struggling to fend off Adam had brought them together for good however. They had no more escuse to pussyfoot around the problem at hand now that it was... well, dead. The death of Adam ripped off the band aid for the two of them.   
  
So that is how Yang had begun to process waking up with Blake cuddled into her side. She had absentmindedly begun to run her fingers through her hair, slowly untangling the soft knots that had formed. She was thinking of the things that led them here.   
  
Most of her thoughts were elsewhere at the moment. Mainly in the territory of 'what now. Where to.' And no answer to either of those questions. One thing was for sure though. It would be her and Blake taking those steps together. In Atlas, they would need to stick together, both for comfort and safety. That had given them a reason to cling to each other from the get go. The other was less direct.   
  
The fact that Blake knew her feelings for her, and vice versa. They did. The only true issue is that they had no idea what to do about it. Fighting a war against Salem would never end, and neither knew if they would ever have the chance to act on what they felt.   
  
A small part of her wanted to do what Pyrrha did. Wait until the end of the line for a final happy memory for the afterlife. Jaune had told her about that event a while ago, back before they had fought Cinder and Leo. It cleared up a lot for her, strangely enough.  
  
With Blake, it was the fear that got to her. She didn't want to lose her again, and she was sure she wouldn't lose her due to conscious action. But she wasn't sure what the future had in store for either of them, and having felt a life slip through her hands just that week, Yang knew better than to expect the best.  
  
She looked out to the moon, still high in the sky. Atlas nights were longer. The differencewas so much that she had time to contemplate where to go from her point.  
  
With Blake quite clearly fast asleep, she took what chance she got now. With a soft actress of her hand over the faunus girl's relaxed cheek, she placed a kiss on her for head and whispered a soft, hardly audible 'I love you'.  
  
Little did the blond know that Blake as in fact awake. She had been listening to her heartbeat for the past fifteen minutes. It helped her relax. Feeling metallic fingers combing through her hair was nice as well.  
  
But... She couldn't help but feel that a kiss on the lips would have been a lot nicer by comparison.   
  
She let Yang become aware of her opinion, and her mind blanked when she found out the blond's lips tasted like a soft mix between honey and something that was exclusively Yang.


End file.
